The Human Side of Accounting - How Kenji Leverages Culture to Turn Work into Community?

“We started really going out in the market, saying, hey, as long as you are a talented accounting person, we don’t care how many hours you work. It’s all up to you.” Says Kanji Kuramoto, CEO of Acuity Accounting in a conversation with Maanoj Shah, an offshoring expert, Co-Founder and Director at Finsmart Accounting.

Episode is live now: https://youtu.be/kG5Z83H2Gf8?si=uFl_JwdskK3QlpIj 

At times when the conversation about 70-80 hours a week continues to be a heated discussion of debate, Kenji has been breaking tradition for years now. The long work hours, leading to burnout and the lack of work-life balance, are often considered one of the key reasons why many new-generation accountants are steering away from the profession. Even though over 3,00,000 accounting professionals have quit the industry with no intent of coming back and the sharp rise in capacity challenges, many firm owners are still pretty resistant towards the change.

Two decades ago, the idea of letting accounting professionals choose their work hours and location was new; this became a tool that helped Acuity grow faster.

Kenji has been a true flag bearer of several modern-day accounting conversations. Let’s delve deeper: 

1. Migration to cloud accounting: 

There has been an immense evolution of technology. While some firm owners have been readily adopting AI, automation, and more, there is another set of leaders who are still apprehensive of the pros and cons. Acuity stands as an example of how spotting the winds of change early on benefits a firm. 

“We saw cloud accounting tools a little over a decade later started to emerge, and we very quickly leaned into cloud accounting tools because one of the main reasons was that it meant we could work from anywhere, we didn’t have to go to a client site.”

This not only helped improve operational efficiency but also enabled the flexibility of serving clients without geographical constraints. This shift laid the groundwork for distributed teams that Acuity Accounting started about 2 decades ago. 

2. Expanding beyond the boundaries: 

The success of cloud adoption naturally led to the next steps – widening the talent search. Despite capacity challenges continuing to be a pressing issue in the accounting industry, accounting firm leaders are hesitant to look for talent beyond their comfort zones. They have many apprehensions. But once you learn to look beyond the issues, partnering with someone who understands your challenges and is ready to help you through them, the success is enormous. This was exactly the case for Kenji.

“We started looking for team members throughout the United States. That opened up all kinds of possibilities to grow. Then we thought, wait a minute, why stop at the United States, what about team members globally?”

For Kenji, talent was never about a location; it was about skills, alignment, and fit. Once Acuity went global, the benefits multiplied – increased capacity, cultural exchange, and fresh perspectives that allowed the firm to maintain the problem-solving approach. 

3. Offshoring for success: 

Most firms see offshoring as a means to reduce costs. But not for Kenji. Kenji believes that cost reduction is often the by-product. His goal has always been to serve clients who can not only survive but thrive with his firm’s help. 

“What we quickly found was that they have very good accounting skills from global team members. They knew all these technologies used for US Accounting, and we got very excited and started hiring more team members.” Kenji talks about his offshore team.

For Acuity, the key wasn’t hiring offshore – it was integrating those teams in a unified culture. One of the common apprehensions that accounting firm owners have is about efficiency with offshore partners. But Kenji believes is that, 

“If your firm has good processes, good workflow, then you are not limited by country or culture or geography at all.” 

Integrating culture into the business

Despite incorporating an offshore team, accounting firms complain about the failure of the partnership. One of the key reasons is their inability to integrate into the culture.

Kenji highlights an important aspect. With an offshore team of 150+ members based in the Philippines, Kenji says that cultural integration doesn’t necessarily mean that the teams based in the US understand the festivals celebrated in the other part of the world and vice versa. What it means is that the team member who has been supporting them throughout receives the same amount of support, whether it is a personal crisis or a celebration.

What he says is that when there is cohesion in the way teams pull each other together, support one another, share a photo, share a story, share laughter, it could make it easy to treat the offshore team just like your own team. He also believes that the responsibility of building cohesion lies with the leaders. 

For Kenji, culture isn’t a poster on the wall—it’s an operating system built into calendars, budgets, and communication cadences. He deliberately engineers shared experiences so distributed (and offshore) teammates feel like one firm: flying in to spend time together and build rituals that stick—meals, beers, even karaoke—because, as he puts it, “Those memories of spending time in the country with our teams will be something I cherish forever… it’s a really powerful impact,” a sentiment he shared while reflecting on meeting global colleagues in person. 

To keep that feeling present between meetups, he runs a lightweight but consistent leadership touchpoint—his weekly “Video from Kenji”—because “Sometimes it’s just, ‘Hey, here’s where in the world I am… Hope everybody’s doing well.’ Little things like that help people stay aligned.” At the end of the day, the success of a firm owner lies in how happy their team members are and how long they are willing to stick by. 

“What we saw was that the global team members were happier, and not only was that self-reported, but they stayed with us longer. 

Still thinking if you should consider offshoring? Here are 3 things you can learn from Kenji’s conversation with Maanoj: 

1. Design culture intentionally – don’t leave it to chance. Build rituals, events, and touchpoints that unite your team, whether it is in the same city or halfway across the world.
2. Treat offshore talent as a part of the core team by including them in celebrations, strategy building, and leadership communications, ensuring they feel equally engaged and valued. 
3. Make a habitual connection through small but consistent gestures – video updates, regular recognition, because culture isn’t built in one-off retreats, it’s reinforced in everyday interactions. 

Watch the complete conversation here: https://youtu.be/kG5Z83H2Gf8?si=uFl_JwdskK3QlpIj
 
Want to get started with offshoring? Book a free consultation: https://finsmartaccounting.com/free-consultation/